St Nicholas' Little Helpers
by Healer Pomfrey
Summary: St. Nicholas needs to replace a sick reindeer and finds the ideal candidate in the form of eight-year-old Harry Potter. Completely AU, a children's story for the Christmas season, Animagus story. Written for my eight-year-old son.


**St. Nicholas' Little Helpers**

**by Healer Pomfrey**

_Harry Potter, the Dursleys and Severus Snape belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

* * *

_**For Skippy, my eight-year-old son – congratulations to your yellow Taekwondoo belt!**_

_****__A.N.: In Germany, St. Nicholas comes to bring presents to the children during the night of December 5/6 every year._  


* * *

Eight-year-old Harry Potter sat in his so-called room, the cupboard under the stairs at the Dursleys' residence, eagerly listening to the sounds that came from the hall outside his room. He heard St. Nicholas speak with Dudley. Although he couldn't make out the words that were spoken, he understood from his cousin's happy squeal that St. Nicholas must have given him a present.

'_How come Dudley gets a present, although he definitely was not a good boy?_' Harry wondered, feeling slightly upset at the thought. Ever since he could remember, neither St. Nicholas nor Santa Claus had ever visited him, and according to Aunt Petunia it was because he was a freak and they only came to good boys.

He let himself sink back onto his mattress and let out an exasperated sigh as he reached for Aunt Petunia's gardening book, which he had grabbed out of the waste paper basket a few days ago. However, all of a sudden, the door to his cupboard opened, and a tall figure in a long, red coat crept inside.

"St. Nicholas," Harry breathed, completely shocked by the sudden appearance, eyeing the visitor in disbelief.

St. Nicholas straightened to a half upright position, as far as possible in the tiny room, and sighed. "Ah, you know who I am," he said, slowly stroking his long, white beard, before he thoughtfully continued to speak, "I am very sorry my boy, for completely ignoring you during the last seven years. Your presents are properly piled up for you at my home. From the time you were born, I knew that you were destined for something extraordinary. Will you trust me and come with me, my boy?"

'Don't go with strangers.' Aunt Petunia's words, which she had never told him but said to Dudley almost every day, was the first thought that came to Harry's mind. However, he thought, '_Nothing can be worse than living here and being called Freak all the time_.'

"Yes sir," he finally replied. "I'd love to come with you, sir."

St. Nicholas gave him a sharp look, before he nodded and said, "Very well then, come here." When Harry hesitantly stepped over, he pulled the boy into his arms.

'_He smells good_,' Harry thought, noticing that St. Nicholas smelled like the Christmas biscuits, which he used to bake for Aunt Petunia every year. Before he could think any further, he felt a strange pull behind his navel, and colourful stars appeared in front of his eyes, before they disappeared in favour of completely different scenery.

"Here we are," St. Nicholas told him, as he slowly released Harry from his embrace.

Harry looked around in disbelief. He found himself on a small field. It was covered with snow, but to his surprise, the air was not as cold as it used to be out in the snow at home. To his left hand side was a stable, the largest that Harry had ever seen, although he hadn't seen many anyway. His eyes widened as he took in a herd of reindeer that was gathered just a few metres away to his right hand side, in front of a huge house. The building looked like a huge gingerbread house, and a fantastic smell of biscuits and sweets wafted from the house.

'_Where are we?_' Harry wondered, turning his eyes to St. Nicholas in silent question.

"This is my home," St. Nicholas replied to the unasked query. "These here are my reindeer. Further down here," he said, pointing to a spot behind the gingerbread house, is the territory of Santa Claus."

Far in the background, Harry could see another house. However, it was so large that it seemed to reach the sky, and it was made of glass, so that it reflected the early evening sun, bathing the whole area into warm, orange light. '_Wow_,' Harry thought, looking around in amazement.

"Now," St. Nicholas spoke again, calling him back to reality. "The reason why I brought you here this year is that I need your help. One of my reindeer, Skippy, is sick, and I need you to take over for him in our herd and to nurse him back to health."

Harry looked at the tall figure in shock. "Excuse me, sir, but how can I cover for a reindeer? And I have no idea how to help a sick reindeer." He flinched back, startled, when St. Nicholas suddenly began to laugh.

"Ho ho ho."

"I'm sorry, sir," he blurted out, terrified, trying to suppress the tears that welled up in his eyes as he felt incredibly stupid.

"Of course you can help," St. Nicholas said in a soft voice. "It is your destiny to help me, and you're even in for a greater destiny if you do well. You are a human, but you're a wizard, just like Skippy. He is a reindeer of course, but he has magic like you." He let out a long sigh. "Skippy is solely responsible for the magical world, but when I sent him to earth a few days ago to collect wish lists from the children, someone saw him and fed him with chocolate frogs. They are delicious; however, he liked them so much that he ate way too many of them, and now he has a stomach ache and a fever, and he can't fly."

"But what can I do about that?" Harry asked, feeling very sorry for the poor reindeer.

St. Nicholas let out a long sigh. "You will be responsible for delivering my presents to the magical world. There is a school in Scotland, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Don't worry, the other reindeer know the way to Scotland; however, since they're not magical, they're not able to communicate with the people. Anyway, when you come to Hogwarts, ask anyone to fetch Professor Snape. He knows Skippy. Tell him what happened and ask him for a potion for him. He will also give you a huge box with potions, which you and the other reindeer are going to deliver to their recipients on the way back."

"All right, sir," Harry hesitantly replied. "But sir..." He slowly trailed off, distracted when St. Nicholas let out another loud laugh.

"Ho ho ho ho hooo."

"Excuse me, sir, but how will I be able to fly?" Harry whispered in a barely audible voice, uncertainly slinging his hands around his shoulders.

"Ho ho ho. You will manage to transform into a reindeer, when you see Skippy. You're a wizard after all," St. Nicholas replied, motioning Harry to come with him.

Harry hesitantly followed St. Nicholas into the stable, which was completely empty apart from one reindeer. It seemed to be smaller than those, which Harry had seen outside. The reindeer was lying on a huge pillow, and small objects that looked like brown frogs were circling around its head. '_Oh no_,' Harry thought, immediately realising that the small reindeer seemed to feel unwell. '_I need to help him_,' he resolved, all of a sudden, feeling the urge to change into a reindeer as well. Driven and helped by an invisible force, he transformed into a reindeer. It was a strange feeling to have four legs, and his head felt somehow fuzzy. However, Harry somehow managed to crouch on the floor next to the sick reindeer, causing it to open its eyes just a little bit.

"Hi there, I am Skippy. Can you help me?" it asked miserably.

"Hi Skippy, I am Harry, and I will try to help you," Harry promised, smiling when a small smile appeared on Skippy's face, before the reindeer closed its eyes again.

Harry slowly walked back to where St. Nicholas was waiting for him, noticing to his surprise that he could communicate with him even in his reindeer form.

"You don't have to transform back into your human form. Since you're not a real reindeer but an Animagus, you will be able to speak with any human, not only with me like the other reindeer. Skippy can speak to humans as well, because he is a magical reindeer, but no one else can," St. Nicholas told him and motioned him to take Skippy's spot between the other reindeer.

There were three lines with two reindeer each before him and two lines behind him. Just when Harry wondered how he was supposed to fly, the reindeer that was standing next to him instructed him to pull out his wings from under his stomach. '_I have wings?_' Harry thought in disbelief, glancing down his strange, brown body. To his amazement, just the thought of possibly having wings made them come out and spread out on both of his sides. '_Wow, how cool is that?_' Harry thought happily, before he noticed in shock that the herd of reindeer began to move forward. '_No... wait... How am I supposed to fly?_' his mind screamed; however, before he knew what was happening, he was already flying together with his new comrades. His wings automatically flapped up and down, and he noticed in surprise that the tiny lights, with which his wings were equipped, were twinkling in nice colours.

"We're going to make course of Scotland first," the oldest reindeer that was flying in the first row informed the group.

'_Wow, this is gorgeous_,' Harry thought, looking at the Christmas decorations along the streets as they flew over Britain at a low altitude. He thoroughly enjoyed himself. They landed at different places, mostly on the roofs of all types of buildings, and delivered presents. To his relief, Harry didn't have to do anything, because the elder reindeer in the first and second row helped St. Nicholas to take the various gifts to their recipients.

Finally, Harry was instructed to look for a huge castle next to a large lake and try to land on the grass in front of it. "That must be Hogwarts," St. Nicholas informed him. "However, unfortunately, none of us is able to see it, because we don't belong to the wizarding world like you and Skippy."

"Over there," Harry blurted out with excitement at the sight of the large castle.

"Well then you must give the elder reindeer exact instructions where to fly," St. Nicholas informed him, and Harry busied himself directing the reindeer to their destination.

A few minutes later, the herd landed on the grass, in front of the castle next to the lake. "Now you must speak with someone and ask them to fetch Professor Snape for you," St. Nicholas said to Harry.

"Okay," Harry promised and slowly made his way over the grounds, where a large group of young people was standing and looking at the reindeer. "Hello," he hesitantly addressed a nice looking boy with red hair, who immediately stepped over to him. "I am sorry to disturb you, but could you please fetch Professor Snape for me? I need to speak with him for St. Nicholas."

"Okay, I'll fetch him. Maybe he's still in the Great Hall. Dinner is just only over. I'm Charlie by the way," the boy replied kindly and dashed away towards the huge entrance doors of the castle.

Harry felt slightly uncomfortable at the attention, which he received from the group of older children, who were eyeing him with interest, and he sighed in relief, when Charlie returned with a tall professor in tow a few minutes later.

"You're not Skippy. Where is he?" the professor asked sharply, causing Harry to look at the man, who was dressed completely in black, in shock.

"Skippy is sick," he stammered. "He ate too many chocolate frogs, and St. Nicholas instructed me to ask you for a potion for him, sir."

"Such a dunderhead," the professor sneered; however, upon seeing that Harry visibly paled at his harsh words, his expression softened, and he continued in a much nicer, baritone voice, "Very well then, wait a moment. Of course I will help Skippy." To Harry's surprise, he unexpectedly shouted, "Cicero!" and a small creature with long ears appeared in front of them. "This is Cicero, my personal house-elf," Snape introduced the small being, before he queried, "What is your name?"

"Freak," Harry blurted out, unaware of why he was using the name, which his relatives used to call him. To his relief, the professor merely quirked an eyebrow but did not comment on his choice of name.

"Well Cicero, Freak is replacing Skippy today. Hand him the box for St. Nicholas as well as one phial of the stomach calming potion for Skippy," Snape instructed Cicero, who popped away and returned mere seconds later with the required items.

With the potions loaded on his back, Harry profusely thanked the professor and made his way back to the herd that was patiently waiting for him. He felt very proud, when St. Nicholas allowed him to help the elder reindeer distributing the potions during the next few hours.

The sky was already getting light, when the group of reindeer returned home together with St. Nicholas. As soon as they landed on the snowy ground, Harry dashed away towards the stable to give Skippy his potion as quickly as possible.

Skippy greedily sipped the potion, his face scrunched in an expression of pure disgust, before he relaxed visibly and said, "Harry, thank you so much for helping me. I feel much better now. Will you be my friend?"

'_He wants to be my friend_,' Harry thought in delight. Never before had anyone wanted to be his friend. '_But now that Skippy is all right again, he will take his position back and St. Nicholas will take me back to the Dursleys_,' he realised, suddenly feeling very sad.

"Skippy and Harry, come here," St. Nicholas suddenly called them, pulling Harry out of his reverie.

Together the two young reindeer stepped in front of St. Nicholas, turning their eyes upwards.

"Harry, thank you very much for helping us out today. You did a wonderful job," St. Nicholas said warmly. "And you, Skippy, you must be more careful not to eat too many sweets." He let out a long sigh, before he continued, "I just had a conversation with Santa Claus. His two magical reindeer are already very old and wish to retire, and when I told him about the two of you, he offered you a promotion. From now on, you may work for him as well if you wish."

"We'd love to," Harry and Skippy said simultaneously, before they exchanged a glance and laughed.

"Very well then, from now on you will stay at Santa Claus' place over there," St. Nicholas continued. "During the year, you will be trained by Rudolf the red nosed reindeer. However, at the beginning of December every year, I need you to come here and help me as usual."

"Will I never have to go back to the Dursleys, and can I stay with Skippy, you and Santa Claus forever?" Harry asked shyly.

"Of course," St. Nicholas confirmed, smiling. "Congratulations Skippy and Harry."

**The End**


End file.
